Marcelo Mailano sits with his attorney in the 41st District Court Tuesday in his capital murder case in the death of Christian Jorjorian.(Photo11: Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)

Mailland, who was 18 years old at the time, and Marco Antonio Nava, 17 at the time, are accused of planning to rob Jorjorian of the drugs and then fatally shooting him as he fled from the scene.

Defense lawyer Mary Stillinger focused her questioning of an El Paso Police Department detective on the role police believed Jorjorian’s brother, Austin Jorjorian, played in the slaying.

An El Paso Police Department detective testified that Austin Jorjorian was not a suspect in actual shooting of his brother, but police thought he “was a suspect, because we had the feeling he knew what happened and who did it, not because we thought he killed him.”

The detective added that Austin Jorjorian was acting “suspicious” and “weird” at the crime scene. Austin Jorjorian was allegedly not cooperating with police and attempting to get his brother’s cellphone or something else from his body as police investigated the fatal shooting.

Marcelo Mailland(Photo11: Courtesy El Paso Police Department)

Austin Jorjorian asked for a lawyer while talking to police because he thought officers were saying he was killer, according to testimony.

Stillinger also focused her questioning of the detective on the search police did of Christian Jorjorian’s house.

Two weapons — a handgun and what appeared to be a rifle — were found in the house, which was about seven houses down and a street away from the crime scene, according to testimony and evidence presented in the trial.

Stillinger asked why police never confiscated the weapons in their investigation, considering Christian Jorjorian was shot.